The energy sector is responsible for the largest share of carbon emissions at the global scale. Day by day, its reliance on fossil fuels exacerbates the climate crisis. Transitions to renewable energy are therefore a vital sociotechnical process for the fate of humanity and the other earth's inhabitants. Yet, decarbonisation is not the only aim transitions serve in capitalist societies. Based on privatised renewable sources and equally private -yet publicly subsidised- investment, they work as major levers for capital accumulation. This duality inescapably affects any project seeking to organise transitions democratically.
This fellowship will consolidate the innovative understandings of capitalism's greening processes that my research generated. It will also advance a wide range of theoretical and analytical contributions which can play a pivotal role in the development of more just, equitable and culturally appropriate renewable transitions. The fellowships will build on my research which investigated capital accumulation around renewable energy in Europe's marginal regions. It analysed the under-explored relationship between the 'green' as an accumulation opportunity and its leveraging as a legitimation framework, by combining comprehensive theoretical elaborations and empirical observations from case studies of two renewable energy systems: the generation of wind energy in southern Italy and agricultural biogas in eastern Germany.
My research revealed that, in both case studies, the alignment of renewable transitions to neoliberal governance principles drew corporate capitals' attention to ecosystem flows (renewable sources) and spaces that had long been of negligible or null interest to investment strategies. Only a few decades ago, hardly would sources such as the wind force in South Italy or the capacity of east Germany's soil to produce energy crops -alongside the rural spaces giving access to them- have aroused investors' appetites.This structural change pushed two semi-peripheral regions of the European capitalism closer to the core of energy policies and markets, with several implications. The arrival of large capitals,facilitated by favourable regulations, prompted a deep reorganisation of the socioeconomic fabric and democratic life at multiple scales, affecting local communities' capacity to self-determine their development paths.iFurthermore, subsidisation policies and low land prices combined into a powerful driver for speculative investors targeting renewable subsidies to extract financial rent.The ensuing pressure towards land acquisitions increased conflicts around land. It also reduced the possibility for local communities to capture and redistribute financial and non-financial profits from renewable energy projects in the territories they inhabited.
Through this fellowship, I will advance my research by translating it into formats and transposing it into realms that can speak to and engage with different audiences.In furthering our comprehension of how capital accumulation and socioeconomic marginality interplay with transitions governance,I will strengthen international discussions towards energy democracy.
To this end, I will implement a programme of activities tailored to reinforce my professional profile and networks across academia and beyond it, towards civil society organisations, social coalitions, and public institutions, generating academic,policy and social impact systematically. While I will enrich specialised debates through publications in high-ranking journals and follow-up research, I will offer instruments to policy and political practice by disseminating my research through a multi-mode web platform, a report, a podcast, and an international workshop.
An extensive wealth of knowledge will so be available to scientific communities, practitioners, policy makers and activists dedicated to rendering renewable transitions, and the provision of essential services,more genuinely democratic.